In the last one week, the district, especially in the city limits, there has been a sharp drop in COVID-19 positive cases. Till about August 30, the district has been registering 900 to 1,000 cases on an average daily. But since September 2, there has been a drop by over 50%.
On September 6, the number of cases recorded was 573, on September 7 it was 387, September 8 it was 426, September 9 it was 414 and on September 10 it was again 414.
The drop is significant, but both District Collector V. Vinay Chand and COVID Special Officer and Principal of Andhra Medical College P.V. Sudhakar, say that it is too early to say that the curve is tapering down. “We are closely monitoring the situation and the next one week to 10 days is crucial. If the trend continues, then we can come to a conclusion,” said Mr. Vinay Chand.
Though there is a drop, the health officials are keeping their fingers crossed. Resurgence of cases after a significant drop also has been the trend world over during this pandemic. “We have seen such resurgence in China and also in Delhi in the recent times. We are now treading cautiously,” said the District Collector.
“Another worrying factor is recurrence. Though in the district or in the city we have not recorded many such cases, where a person was infected for the second time, but there are a few cases and we are closely monitoring them,” said Dr. Sudhakar. “We also insist that such cases should immediately brought to our notice, as they need to be studied more closely,” he added.
Extensive testing
One theory supporting the drop in cases, is extensive testing. The health officials in tune with district administration and the GVMC have covered the 750 clusters or containment zones. “We have tested close to 90% of the population in these containment zones and our strategy of 3Ts (test, track and treat) appear to have paid us dividends,” said Mr. Vinay Chand.
‘No shortage of kits’
Negating the speculation that the drop in cases may be due to shortage of rapid antigen kits, Dr. Sudhakar said, “There is no shortage of rapid antigen or RT-PCR test kits. On Wednesday, we received 80,000 rapid antigen kits. Even if we conduct 4,000 tests per day, it will last us 20 days. Moreover, every fourth or fifth day, the kits are replenished.”
Keeping the focus on testing, the district administration has decided to test all who report at the PHCs with fever.
“We have decided to keep fever as the benchmark now,” he said. As part of the focussed testing strategy, the District Collector has added one more medical officer at each of the 72 PHCs in the GVMC limits. “We already have one MO posted at the 72 PHCs in each of the 72 wards and now we will have one more who will focus only on testing and swab collection,” said Dr. Sudhakar.
The house surgeons at KGH and Andhra Medical College, have devised a unique way to reach out to the positive cases who are in home isolation.
The district administration has set up a call centre in AMC to inquire about the health of the positive cases under home isolation. As per the records, there are 5,016 cases in home isolation and there are two computers manned by two doctors who undertake the job of calling them and inquiring about their health condition and checking their vitals.
“On Thursday, 10 house surgeons brought their laptops and at a stretch called over 4,900 patients and inquired about their health and checked their vitals,” said Dr. Sudhakar, appreciating innovativeness of the young doctors.